By Rohan Coleman
Across her various cinematic displays of aesthetic expression including Promising Young Woman (2020) and Saltburn (2023), Emerald Fennell has been criticised for a multitude of things, ranging from her less than savoury portrayals of the lower classes to her status as a so-called ‘fake freak’ attempting to depict erotic and outlandish visuals that underwhelm many viewers. Love them or hate them, Fennell’s movies are guaranteed to cause widespread debate, with each new project developing a raunchy reputation for their portrayals of social issues in a manner both sexy and gruesomely unglamorous. The British writer/director’s latest film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is no stranger to the wave of critique that has hit Fennell’s previous work, though this movie has earned Fennell accusations of racism, illiteracy and class ignorance.
Brontë’s gothic novel has already birthed over 30 film and television adaptions alongside a renowned song by Kate Bush, all of which capture the various themes of racial prejudice, class divide, and violent obsession featured in the book. Written in 1845, the classic text follows Heathcliff, a dark-skinned child raised with the Earnshaws, an affluent and ignorant white family. As Heathcliff grows up, he is constantly subjugated to physical and mental abuse based on his race and lower social status, with a majority of this abuse coming from Hindley Earnshaw, the family’s only son. Though he has faced the extreme gaps in social standing between himself and this family, Heathcliff is thick as thieves with the daughter of the family, Catherine, and as the pair reach adolescence, they develop mutual romantic feelings for one another. However, due to Catherine’s social status she cannot be with Heathcliff, as it would only ‘degrade’ her, leading her to marry her wealthy white neighbour, Edgar Linton, instead. This betrayal of Heathcliff causes a generational split between the two, the violent and tragic consequences of which are felt by these characters and their offspring for decades.
Heathcliff’s identity as a person of colour is integral to Wuthering Heights, as it is this aspect of his identity that informs his relationship with every character, and dictates his entire narrative arc as he descends into aggressive and reactionary violence as a result of the abuse he faced throughout his childhood. It is both the racial and economic gap that disrupts Cathy and Heathcliff’s relationship, as the novel discusses social insecurity, racial prejudice and the abuse that stems from the abhorrent dehumanisation of people of colour and the lower class.
While these themes have been well understood for over 150 years, as nearly every adaptation has featured these elements, it seems Emerald Fennell is disinterested in adapting these themes, instead choosing to centre her film on the ‘sadomasochistic love story’ between Heathcliff and Cathy, staying true to the ‘disturbingly erotic’ tone of her previous film Saltburn. Since the release of Saltburn, discussion surrounding ‘freaky cinema’ and Fennell’s place within it has taken off, with many considering the writer to be considerably less sexually outlandish as she presents her films to be. While Saltburn featured various explicit scenes that stirred up controversy, Wuthering Heights is notably less direct in its sexual nature, though the marketing keeps up the spicy reputation that Fennell’s writing style has taken on.
The biggest issue with this romantic direction, however, is that the tragedy of Cathy and Heathcliff is entirely informed by Heathcliff’s racial and economic identity. Bypassing these themes as Fennell does seems incredibly ill-informed and reductive, as this newfound emphasis on the steamy romance (that does not necessarily exist in the novel) eclipses the incredibly profound social themes explored in the original text.
Though he delivers a moving performance, the casting of Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff is astoundingly baffling, as it clearly indicates a removal of the vast racial themes permeating the novel, trading in a difficult and knotty exploration of racial prejudice for a heart-throb. Long before Wuthering Heights released in cinema this casting decision was widely disputed and argued, with thousands expressing their confusion and anger at the decision to portray Heathcliff as a white man. Fennell has defended Elordi’s role in the film by claiming that she never imagined Heathcliff to be a person of colour, though his very first appearance in the book describes him as a “dark-skinned gypsy, making it uncomfortably difficult to accept this excuse.
Fennell also decides to downplay Heathcliff’s abuse towards many women within the story, depicting his relationship with Isabella Linton as a dominant-submissive power play rather than the outright abuse that is described in the novel. Wuthering Heights is framed as a romance story, following the typical formulas of the genre, and thus expecting us to root for Heathcliff and Cathy to be together. In order to ensure the audience roots for Heathcliff, Fennell uses her creative liberty to remove his more unsavoury characteristics, such as his abuse towards women, his aggressive attitude, and seemingly, his identity as a person of colour. Though it may not be intentional on Fennell’s part, it is near impossible to ignore the idea that Heathcliff was cast a white person in order to make the romance more believable or satisfactory, should the vast themes of racial abuse get in the way of the steamy affair Fennell wants to focus on.
This off-putting racial direction is worsened by the casting of Edgar Linton and Nelly as people of colour, though they are white in the novel. Following the idea that “Wuthering Heights” is formulated as a romance, Edgar and Nelly are the main two characters standing in the way of Heathcliff and Cathy’s romance, with Edgar being Cathy’s lawful husband, and Nelly actively disrupting the pairs communication. While Nelly harbours resentment towards Cathy for being a stuck-up brat in the novel, Fennell depicts a much more malevolent Nelly, who makes active attempts to stop Cathy and Heathcliff from being together. This is an interesting interpretation of the character, though any intriguing aspect of this framing is completely sidetracked by the truly horrible race change of these characters. Firstly, making Heathcliff white in order to make the romance easier to root for is abhorrent as it is, but making the two characters in the way of this romance people of colour and changing their actions to essentially pose them as the villains of the story is incredibly irresponsible, unpleasant and has led to thousands of claims that Fennell’s adaptation is racist.
While literary adaptations are under no obligation to be 100% book accurate, a certain level of similarity to the original themes of the text must be retained. While films like Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein (2025) or Amy Heckerling’s Clueless (1995) have an original identity, they maintain the key themes and narrative arcs explored in the original text. Meanwhile, Fennell’s Wuthering Heights feels incredibly dismissive, socially irresponsible, and at times frustratingly average. What was a beloved gothic exploration of the abuse put upon marginalised members of society has been framed as an ‘erotic’ and steamy love affair that ignores a majority of the original framework. Saying that, many viewers have decided to view this film as its own entity, ignoring the original framing of the story and instead choosing to digest the film as it is presented, leading to increasingly contested and conflicting reactions and discussions surrounding the movie.
While the film itself has some technically good elements, such as the beautiful visuals that play with colour and shadow in a wonderfully engaging way as is typical of Fennell’s aesthetic styling, the bad aspects heavily outweigh the good aspects. Though questions of creative liberty, representation and social responsibility have been debated to no end as a result of Wuthering Heights, the general response to the film have been overwhelmingly negative, with countless viewers being unable to ignore the sheer racial ignorance of the most controversial movie of the year.